Jiminy and Berkshire Backcountry 2/20-2/21

After this weeks thaw I expecting some pretty bad snow up north. Because I figured the snow would be equally bad about everywhere I decided to spend the weekend at my Uncles house in East Chatham NY. Nikki and I were sleep deprived so we slept in Saturday morning than rushing up to Hunter. The wind and cold seemed less than inviting so we sat the day out and just drove to my uncles. The next day we skied Jiminy in the morning. It was surprisingly decent. There were a few spots of glare, but most was edgeable pack, albeit not too soft, some granular conditions. It was darn cold though! A few lifts were protected from the wind and with the sun it was somewhat comfortable. I've never seen so much cover between the trails. Nikki had a huge breakthrough with her technique this weekend, "toes, knees, nose" really helped her. Her skis got closer together and her turns looked really good!

Today we woke up to 4-7 inches at my uncle's property. He is well tucked away on the side of a hill/mountain. His access road was pretty clogged up with snow, and with his steep hill I was stuck. So, we definitely weren't going to a mountain today for lift skiing. Instead, I went into the woods behind his house. There is about a 250 foot hill (north facing) behind his house with gladed terrain that is kept somewhat thin for deer hunting in the fall. I hiked up 3 times and skied down 3 times. Nikki snow shoed up, and broke the trail for me while a slowly made my way up (ski boots are heavy). Here are some of the pictures she took over the 3 hikes this afternoon (these photos are vertical on my computer but they are turned on this site?...):

The photos are correctly oriented on your computer because you're using an image viewer that auto-rotates the image for display based on the EXIF data. This, however, does not rotate the image permanently -- you have to use your image editor to do so.

Admin":2p7z5f38 said:

The photos are correctly oriented on your computer because you're using an image viewer that auto-rotates the image for display based on the EXIF data. This, however, does not rotate the image permanently -- you have to use your image editor to do so.

Click to expand...

Iphoto has them as vertical too. I only have this issue when I use the Iphone for photos.

Photos are fixed... Sorry about all those injured necks I caused out there in the internets.

You're brave to ski the woods in the Berkshires, given the amount of trees, underbrush, fallen trees and branches, and rocks that are in the woods, although this year we have had enough snow to cover up some of those obstacles. Normally, there are very few places around here where you can ski the woods safely. I skied both days this past weekend. Saturday was unbelievable windy in the afternoon. My local hill had to shut down one of the chairlifts. I was taking a quad up the mountain about 3:00 PM and a gust of wind that had to be at least 50 to 60 MPH came up straight behind us. You could feel the wind blow the chairs straight up the mountain. Sort of freaky. And Sunday morning was VERY cold and windy for the first couple of hours. The base has pretty much frozen into a solid chunch of ice, after three days last week with temps in the 50's and then a sudden plunge in temps. I'm going to ski Jiminy tomorrow with my daughter on some free passes someone gave me.

berkshireskier":10s23e73 said:

You're brave to ski the woods in the Berkshires, given the amount of trees, underbrush, fallen trees and branches, and rocks that are in the woods, although this year we have had enough snow to cover up some of those obstacles. Normally, there are very few places around here where you can ski the woods safely.

Click to expand...

This was a hill directly behind my uncle's house. I could see it was completely covered. That coupled with last weeks thaw firming the base and the 5 inches or so sitting on top made it totally safe. Very little was poking up.

rfarren":j7nnkppn said:

This was a hill directly behind my uncle's house. I could see it was completely covered. That coupled with last weeks thaw firming the base and the 5 inches or so sitting on top made it totally safe. Very little was poking up.

Click to expand...

Yes, but did you have your beacon, probe and shovel with you? (tongue firmly planted in cheek)...

Who woulda thunk Rob would be the newest backcountry skier...

EMSC":1a0nof99 said:

rfarren":1a0nof99 said:

This was a hill directly behind my uncle's house. I could see it was completely covered. That coupled with last weeks thaw firming the base and the 5 inches or so sitting on top made it totally safe. Very little was poking up.

Click to expand...

Yes, but did you have your beacon, probe and shovel with you? (tongue firmly planted in cheek)...

Who woulda thunk Rob would be the newest backcountry skier...

Click to expand...

I didn't dig a pit which was a mistake as you can clearly see from the photos the grade was about 75 degrees. That Coastal EC snowpack really sticks to everything.

I've always wanted to do backcountry skiing but the problem has been ski partners and the cost of a backcountry rig (AT gear + becaon, shovel, probe etc....) The added bonus of earning your turns is that they are free.